Ekiti PDP 2014 political calculation.

Ekiti PDP and its 2014 political calculation

In its bid to oust the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the  state branch of the Peoples Democratic Party is banking on the fact that no one has governed the state for two terms, FEMI MAKINDE writes

The Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State is the only active opposition party trying to wrest power from the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria. The party, which was ousted from power on October 15, 2010 by a Court of Appeal  judgment,  has never hidden its desire to return to the Government House. 

Despite the crisis, which is threatening to tear the PDP apart, various factions within the party are attempting   to wrest power from Governor Kayode Fayemi. Mr. Segun Oni, who was sacked from the Government House by the Appeal Court verdict, has since gone back to court in a bid to reclaim the seat from Fayemi.   While Oni is doing a solo run to unseat Fayemi, the executives of the PDP are planning to use the next election to unseat the ACN government. 

The Chairman of the PDP in the state, Mr. Makanjuola Ogundipe, on the day he was declared the chairman, had said that his number one assignment was to send Fayemi packing — a position he has maintained since then. 

Last week, Ogundipe in an interview ruled out second term for Fayemi, who would be two years old in office in October.  The PDP boss said that no governor had been elected twice in the history of the 15-year-old state. He added that the performance of the ACN government in the past 18 months  had been very poor. 

Ogundipe said, “In Ekiti State, for any governor to come back and do second term is an abomination. Nobody has ever done it. Any governor in Ekiti State; the day he conceived that idea that is the day he will begin to fall. It is our tradition, it is eat and let others eat, it is turn by turn, nobody can tell me you want to usurp my turn, no, I am not joking, this is part of our system.

“When (Otunba Niyi) Adebayo wanted to become governor the second term was when he started to create enemies for himself.  This is a natural phenomenon and you cannot take it away from Ekiti. Fayemi is a joker, he is a joker.”

Although Fayemi has not publicly declared any interest   to seek reelection after the expiration of his mandate in 2014, a comment by a leader of the market women association in the state, Mrs. Waye Osho, during an empowerment programme, urging the governor to go for second term might have triggered the reaction of the PDP chairman. 

However, the PDP chairman has come under attack for describing Ekiti politics as “chop make I chop,”  and many stakeholders have said that the PDP stood for corruption. 

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Funminiyi Afuye,  described Ogundipe as a political neophyte. He said the PDP chairman did not know that the people of the state, who had been liberated from the bondage of underdevelopment caused by the alleged corruption of  successive PDP administrations in the state would always resist any attempt to force them back into slavery.

Afuye said, “Ogundipe is a political neophyte that does not know his bearing. He lacks assertive cognitive orientation to know that the foundation of development had been laid and is being vigorously pursued by Governor Kayode Fayemi.

“What Ekiti people need at the moment is not a reckless, purposeless  change of leadership but a focused, selfless and transparent  leader which Governor Fayemi epitomises  to lead the state out of the quagmire of  corruption and underdevelopment it was plunged into by the PDP.

“This administration is unlike the one that was ousted. The government abhors corruption and that is why the Fayemi-led administration became the first state in the country  to domesticate the Freedom of Information Act.”

The commissioner further listed achievements of the administration saying the state became the first in West Africa to start social security scheme for the aged despite the meagre resources accruing to it.  He said that despite the meagre resources, the administration had turned the state into a huge construction site where different projects were going on every day.

Ogundipe’s comment also drew sharp criticisms from some non-governmental organisations who said the “chop make I chop” being propounded by the chairman was not the tradition of the people of the state but that of him and his political party. 

The Executive Director of the International Group for Awareness on Democracy, Mr. Sina Awelewa, described Ogundipe’s comment as unfortunate. 

Awelewa said, “I believe such unguarded utterance is a fallacy, an insult, embarrassment and a distortion of history of the people of Ekiti State who are known for integrity, honour, decency and transparency.

“ The chairman of the PDP in Ekiti State, Mr. Ogundipe should have been honest enough to come out straight and say the obvious that “chop make  I chop” politics is the tradition within the PDP family.” 

The group said that it was unfortunate  that the PDP chairman was preaching  politics of corruption and self-enrichment when serious minded people were talking of business ideas, innovations and development.

The IGAD boss said that it was laughable that the chairman of a party who is “preaching chop make I chop” could be dreaming of ousting Fayemi who he described as a great performer.

Awelewa stated that the PDP had squandered the opportunity it had to develop the state. He advised the PDP to stop dreaming about returning to power in the  state in 2014 saying the people were ready to resist any plan to impose any unpopular candidate on them. 

According to him, “ It is only people living in a fool’s paradise that can be dreaming of taking power from an achiever like Kayode Fayemi who has changed the meaning of governance in Ekiti State and brought unprecedented development to the state.” 

Although Ogundipe’s comment on ‘chop make I chop’ might be unfortunate, as some stakeholders described it, the truth in his statement remained that no governor in the history of the state has served for a second term.

There is no state in Nigeria that has higher turnover of governors than Ekiti State. The state which was created almost  16 years ago by late  Gen. Sani Abacha has had nine different governors.  The state which until recently had the sobriquet ‘Fountain of Knowledge’ has had an unenviable record of having 10 governors in 15 years.  At creation of the state in 1996, Col. Inuwa Bawa ruled until May 29, 1999 when the first elected governor of the state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, was  inaugurated.   Adebayo remains  the only governor to have successfully completed a four year term. He lost his reelection bid and his party was thrown into the wilderness for over seven years. 

After Adebayo, Mr. Ayo Fayose came  and after three  years he was impeached and removed on the allegation of corruption. The state witnessed frequent change of leaders following Fayose’s removal.   

The then Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Friday Aderemi, who was sworn in as the acting governor did not last more than one day. After the inauguration of Aderemi, Fayose’s deputy, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi also started laying claim to the governorship seat. This made former President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare emergency rule in the state.

Gen. Adetunji Olurin (retd) thereby became the sole administrator and after his stay, he handed over to Mr. Tope Ademiluyi who was elected the new speaker. Ademiluyi whose reign lasted about three months  handed over to Mr. Segun Oni in 2007. The election of Oni of the PDP was nullified in February 2009 based on the petition filed by Fayemi  and the court asked the Speaker of the state then, Mr. Tunji Odeyemi, to take over.  Odeyemi, who supervised the governorship rerun election, handed power back to Oni who was declared the winner of the rerun by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

But on October 15, 2010, Oni’s administration was sacked by the Court of Appeal because Fayemi had refused to let go of his mandate. Oni, who was not prepared for the shock he got from the Court of Appeal  was jolted by the court ruling and he hurriedly left the Government House and Fayemi assumed office the next day amidst wild jubilation. Fayemi has kept quiet on whether he would seek reelection or not. But analysts are of the view that his achievements or otherwise and not second term would determine which party will win the next governorship poll in 2014.